Escape from Hab Two

Doomsday Diary –

With a dart to his left Jericho slid on the heel of his foot through the wet mud crouching squarely behind one of the larger oak tree stumps that made up the old Nottingham Forest. Even though he didn’t need to take a breather per se he still wanted a couple of seconds to collect himself and plan his next move. The pursuers behind him had electric bikes so were faster on open ground and were tracking him with Hab Two’s fleet of observation and battle drones. At the very edge of his hearing he could detect them even now making their way through the forest towards him, relentless.

Jericho knew he’d been on the run for too long, it was a losing game and one that would end in his capture and termination, he needed to take a new approach. An aggressive approach. With an absent-minded gesture Jericho lightly touched the locket around his neck, tracing its heart-shape with his dexterous finger as he plotted out his options. Getting the locket, and the personality matrix it housed, to Hab Seven was critical but if he went after the goons chasing him there was at least an odds even chance of success which was better than running on foot all the way to Seven.

Decision made Jericho dug a small hole in the wet, ashy mulch at the base of the charred stump and reverently placed the locket down, covering it quickly with damp earth. He glanced around his surroundings, the air thick with the pernicious fog that had cursed the land for the last 45 years. A light wind created eddies and the weak sunlight made the smoke-like air dance slowly around him, an ominous, mournful dance. In infrared there was more to see, a few tiny rodents scurrying in the uneven forest floor between the dead trees and feasting on yet smaller bugs surviving on the decaying remains of what had once lived here.

With an inhuman speed Jericho took off at a different angle to the one he’d been running at before, he wanted to get as far away from the buried locket as possible. Within two minutes he heard the whine of a battle drone, then spied it just as it spotted him and dove through the fog layer to engage. Spitting out EMP pulses that would usually disable a support droid of Jericho’s specifications. Fortunately Jericho had been born with a few enhancements that the Hab Two AI had been able to incorporate during his manufacture and ‘birthing’ process. The pulses still stung, like a young jellyfish trying to numb a swimmer’s leg but Jericho focused on sending out his own RFID pulse, trying to gain control of the drone through one of his own subversion programs. The fog must have been too thick though and after a second of trying Jericho aborted the attempt and brought out a small bolt-action pistol he’d stored in a leg compartment, with a carefully aimed shot he brought the drone down.

He didn’t have much time, the drone would have immediately alerted the rest of the Hab Two security team as soon as it had spotted Jericho. There was a large rock that might offer some protection so he leapt behind it just as two humans in their bulky combat suits came crashing into weapons’ range, both leaping to the ground as Jericho opened fire. He managed to clip one on the foot, which sent the guard rolling down the small incline he’d been trying to get behind. The other guard opened fire, a spray of bullets chipping chunks of stone off the rock Jericho was stuck behind.

Jericho triangulated the position of the guard from the sounds of the weapon fire then poked his gun out from the protection of the boulder, keeping his head safely concealed and fired a single shot, which slammed into the guard’s helmet, crumpling it instantly. The weapon fire stopped as the guard fell dead so Jericho ran towards him without hesitation, swiping his gun as he ran past with his right hand as he leveled his pistol in his right hand to the other guard that was still trying to right himself. Another shot and the second guy went down. In the moment he took to confirm both fatalities he could see the noxious fog seep into their now compromised suits and already beginning to redden the flesh he could see. During his escape from Two Jericho had been very conscientious about using non-lethal force but he was pissed and playing to win.

Two more soldiers entered into his field of fire, more cautiously this time, but not cautiously enough and were both quickly put down at the same time now Jericho had a weapon in both hands. He could hear the buzz of far-off drones racing to his spot, no doubt with more nasty EMP lasers ready to slow him down.

Jericho was spotted by an observation drone before he’d gone 20 meters, again his subversion virus was rebuffed. He detected battle drones converging on his position and the thundering of more humans crashing through the forest from all directions. Damn he’d miscalculated there must be at least 15 people running towards him and innumerable drones getting closer.

He wasn’t going to get out of this he realised but maybe he could let his family know where he’d left the matrix. With a start he ran away from the observation drone which as expected immediately began to follow, Jericho pushed himself to go as fast as possible until he saw a blackened tree still standing that would work, he used his momentum to run up it almost vertically to 30 meters then sprang off it and backflipped, spinning until the drone was in reach of his hand, while still falling to the ground he punctured the shell of the drone and uploaded his subversion program. Loading it with new instructions. By the time his feet reached the ground, Jericho used his substantial strength to fling the drone high and away just as the first of the battle drones reached him and began their EMP bombardment.

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